If there is a good book what would it be? I'm pretty sure I can find stuff on YouTube (any particular user?). Any blogs out there?
9 Answers
- A Bit More Than Basic Bicycle Maintenance for the Average Cyclist, at the How to Fix Bikes
- Sheldon Brown's site has articles on many aspects of bike maintenance
- The Park Tool website has instructions for most basic repair operations, and their handy bike map is great when you don't know a headset from a handlebar.
- Bicycle Tutor has videos demonstrating many repair jobs
- Beachbike's Youtube channel has a lot of information specific to beach cruisers. The videos on internally geared hubs are helpful and clear.
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I know you asked for books, but much of the same information is on these sites. Commented Aug 26, 2010 at 4:53
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4Park Tool also has a book: "Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair" I'm working my way through it now, but so far it seems pretty handy. Lots of pictures, and definitions, and includes the "Bike Map" as well.– gabe.Commented Aug 27, 2010 at 1:54
These two books came highly recommended to me, and together they cover about every bike part your bike may have. (The road bike book doesn't cover "V" style brakes, since they're considered mountain bike parts).
Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance
Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance
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2I have the road bike version and it's been very, very helpful! Commented Aug 29, 2010 at 6:30
I'd recommend Park Tool's Big Blue Book of Bike Repair. Plenty of pictures and good explanations. This book has made a number of things seem a lot less intimidating.
(Moved over from a duplicate question. I can't vote on comments yet, or I'd just +1 to Gabe.)
This one is pretty good: The Bicycling guide to complete bicycle maintenance & repair : for road & mountain bikes / Todd Downs. (6th edition out soon)
I personally have Zinn and the Art of Road Bike Maintenance as mentioned above.
I use a combination of:
- The Haynes Bike Book which is like a standard Haynes Manual but for bikes.
- The Complete Do It Yourself Bike Book by Mel Allwood
- The Internet
Between them the two books tend to give me a thorough step by step breakdown of what needs to be done and what tools I might require, whilst the internet just pads this out (and can occasionally be either difficult to search or confusing with it's results).
This website if you've got a more specific question about which bit of your bike you want to maintain!
Look for courses at your local bike store.
In the UK Edinburgh bike coop do excellent basic and more advanced course, as do MEC in Canada - both also do women only courses.
Most local bike advocacy groups will do something similar, sometimes it's helpful to see how to do it.
I also use Todd Downs "Bicycle Maintnenance & Repair" book as it has great pictures and really explains things well.
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I like this one too, but it was mentioned in another answer.– BatmanCommented Sep 15, 2015 at 19:18